Deep Shades of Blue

September 6, 2008

When most fans think of the pre-game speech they think of the old gipper getting up in front of the team and inspiring and motivating their players before the big game. I have been in the locker room a time or two in my life and I’ve heard a lot of different game day speeches. Bronco’s is one of the most understated of them all. He takes care of his speeches during the week and when the game day rolls around, his speeches are normally to “play with phenomenal effort” and to “execute, better then the team we are playing”. These phrases should sound familiar since he repeatedly uses them when talking to the media. There is one other phrase, which he uses that was adopted in 2005. The phrase helped focus us during the 2005 comeback to prominence.
The phrase is simple, make one more play then the other team. Yeah, I know it is very simple and doesn’t seem very inspiring. But with our team, sitting around in the New Mexico locker room down at the half and needing a win to salvage the season making one more play was a goal to achieve, it focused every player that heard it. During the game, a player’s emotions are all over the board. Having a real focus after an opponent has a big play, or a big hit is crucial to the teams overall success. By remembering on Bronco’s simple phrase, “making one more play”, the Cougars’ actions will be focused on making that one play that could change the emotion of the game and swing the outcome towards the good guys.
In that game Matt Allen makes a great play, catching the ball on the sideline making a Lobo defender miss and then diving into the end zone to secure the victory. Even as I remember the story I got goose bumps. We had made one more play then our opponent and as result left New Mexico sky high and ready for the next game.
If something happens in today’s game, just remember that one more play is needed. Then that play can turn into a series of plays, and then those series can turn into a drive and drives can lead to a Cougar victory.

GO COUGARS, and for the guy in Iraq that will be participating in the live blogging, thanks for serving our country and come home safe.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 8:45 am and is filed under Coaching staff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.